Squatters Removed From Kafue Hunting Areas in Zambia

Published: December - 2010

Last month I reported the Kafue Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) office was taking aggressive action against human encroachment threatening the Kafue hunting areas. By law in Zambia, people are barred from living in the Game Management Areas, yet thousands were living in the Kafue, and many more in other GMAs. You'll remember Werner van Noordwyk of Nsonga Safaris told me that ZAWA would be removing these people from the area. (See Article IDs 2433 and 2444.)

Subscriber Jeff Byrnes recently confirmed what van Noordwyk reported. Byrnes hunted with Nsonga Safaris this past September/October in the Kafue Flats as well as the Nkala and Namwala GMAs controlled by Nsonga. "Just before I arrived, a large number of people living in the Namwala GMA were relocated to other parts of the country," Byrnes wrote in his report. "I saw numerous villages in the Namwala GMA that had recently been vacated. This is bound to help with poaching problems."

He also confirms the many improvements van Noordwyk said he had been making to the concession. "Both the Nkala and Namwala areas are very good now and will definitely get better in the next few years. New roads are being built that will open up additional parts of Namwala. This GMA had a lot of game, with good trophy sizes. I saw numerous hartebeest, sable and puku. It looked like a great leopard area too; we even saw one running in the open. The Nkala area has huge numbers of buffalo. We saw one herd of at least 1,000, also lots of defassa waterbuck and reedbuck.

"This was my seventh African safari and also the best. A great all-around experience with lots of game, a wide diversity of terrain, good fishing and bird shooting and all supported by a first-rate organization. With all of the problems with hunting in Africa today, it was nice to see an area that is improving." Byrnes reports taking a Cape buffalo with a 37½-inch spread, along with a good Lichtenstein hartebeest, a bushbuck and a Kafue lechwe.